Five Times Chase Never Left PrincetonPlainsboro
by AuntieClimatic
Summary: Gen There is a time when Robert Chase will leave PrincetonPlainsboro. These will not be how it happens.


Five Times Chase Left Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital 

_One: "It_ _hurt a lot less to just not care."_

House waits until Cameron and Foreman leave to tell Chase he is going to fire him.

After Chase's jaw stops clenching and unclenching, and his eyes focus again, he responds with, "going to be fired?"

"Volger said I had to get rid of you by Monday. However, if you quit before then I can't really fire you can I? And you get all those nice little perks of two weeks notice and a letter of recommendation."

Chase is silent, and House restrains himself from playing with his yo-yo. That would be inconsiderate.

"So you want me to quit?"

"Yep."

"So you don't have to fire me?"

"Yep."

"So you can stick it to Volger one last time."

"Yes."

"I see." Chase says, his eyes belying his calm shift of his bag on his shoulder, "You'll have my letter of resignation by tomorrow morning."

House's gut twists, but House's mouth says, "Great. I have a box sent up for you to put your stuff in."

A ripple moves over Chase's face before it settles into its usual blankness, "So that's it then."

House uses his good foot to scoff the floor, "Yeah."

Chase nods politely and turns to leave.

"Why didn't you turn on me, Chase?"

Chase stops, one hand holding open the glass door while his own words ring in his ears: it hurt a lot less to just not care If only he had remembered that. Maybe then he could have gone to Volger. Maybe if he hadn't cared about protecting House then maybe he could have kept this job.

"I guess I just forgot."

_Two: "Sorry about your dad."_

Chase misses the flight to Australia for his dad's funeral. Instead he packs up what little he kept from his past, dumps it into the trunk of his car, signs a few forms in his apartment complex, leaves no forwarding address, and drives off.

It's early when he stops in the parking lot of Princeton-Plainsboro. The sun starts to peak up from behind the trees, and the faint sound of birds can still be heard over the light traffic. Chase sits with both hands on the steering wheel and stares building.

People come and go, and Chased watches them all: The exhausted nurses smiling as they talk to someone on the phone, parents fussing over their children, people pushing their loved ones in wheelchairs.

Things Chase never had and will never have.

A car parks in one of the handicapped zones. House pops out with a grimace and limps his way to the doors of the clinic.

"Right," Chase nods to himself. "Right."

He puts his car into reverse and pulls out onto the highway. This time he keeps driving.

_Three: "__Welcome aboard the Good Ship Asskisser."_

One day Chase snaps. He calls House a hypocritical bully, Cameron a manipulative bitch, but he can't think of an insult for Foreman quickly enough so he just stutters a bit before settling on House Jr.

Chase tears off his medical jacket and throws it on the table. Although, Chase isn't brave enough to watch their reactions, he's brave enough to whistle as he walks calmly out of the room.

Chase takes a job in California where he can see the beach from his office.

_Four:__ "Get your head out of the dead baby's butt and focus on the barely alive!"_

Chase remembers how tiny Mike looked on the autopsy table, how easy it was to slide the scalpel into the chest, shudders, and tosses back his drink with a grimace.

"Bad day?"

Chase snorts. In front of him stands the bartender: darkly beautiful, short, and brunette, with a soft accent that sounds vaguely Lebanese. Chase likes this bar because she doesn't ask questions when he sometimes orders tea instead of coffee or soda instead of beer. Not once has she commented on his accent, asked him where he's from, or if he knows "that crocodile guy."

"What's your name?" Chase asks. The bartender raises her eyebrow.

"Sorry. I've just realized I've been coming here for three years and I don't even know your name."

The bartender smiles slowly, and Chase sniffles a gasp there is nothing calculating, malicious, or haunted behind it.

"Sarah."

"Well, Sarah, my name's Chase. Are you hiring?"

Sarah laughs, reaches under the bar, and tosses Chase the application form.

The next day Chase gives his two weeks notice. The next year he proposes to Sarah. Sarah gives the smile that still makes Chase swallow a gasp and says yes.

_Five: "__You've reached a number that has been disconnected and is no longer in service."_

Chase is driving to work when a drunk driver hits him. Even House admits that the emergency room doctors were amazing, but the internal injuries are too much. Cameron cries so hard that Wilson slips a sedative into her coffee, Foreman stands in shock until Cuddy steers him to a bench where he sits with his head in his hands, and House waits.

He sits the chair next to Chase's bed and listens to the beeps that tell him how hard Chase is fighting, and how long it will take him until he looses. Chases regains consciousness only once before the end.

House jumps slightly when Chase's bloodshot eyes open. He braces himself for the questions, but Chase only stares.

"House?"

"We didn't know if you wanted a Priest," House says. "I assumed not."

Chase blinks slowly which makes House fidget and wish, for the first time in his life, Cameron was here instead of lying unconscious.

"Chase…"

Chase smiles painfully, "Just shut up and hold my hand, House."

House hesitates, but reaches out and grasps Chase's hand. Chase's eyes start to close.

"Thanks, Dad."

Then the beeping stops, and Chase goes somewhere else.


End file.
